Custom-Carbon Maestro Sarto Antonio Now Available In Singapore

Custom-Carbon Maestro Sarto Antonio Now Available In Singapore

TOGOPARTS EDITORIAL TEAM | 14th Jan 2016 | NEWS

“Bespoke”, “Hand-Made”, “Customised” and “Sarto Antonio” are all words that make the eyes of discerning road cyclists gleam with lust.

Sporting a pedigree that goes back all the way to the beginning of the Italian domination of the road bike scene, Sarto Antonio Cycles began life with its namesake, Il Signor Antonio, who started building bicycle frames in the early 1950s with his two brothers.

Antonio Sarto opened his own company, Sarto Antonio S.p.A. in 1959, and with early major clients including the historic Torpado and Atala brands, his frame-building business flourished and Sarto Antonio Cycles eventually started making high end aluminium and steel frames for brands like Pinarello.

The brand has fifty years of experience building custom bike frames for champions like Rominger, Moser, Fondriest, Simoni, Rebellin, Ugrumov, and Bartoli. The hour record of Andrej Sosenka was conquered on a Sarto frame. Even Lance Armstrong used a Sarto frame during his short stay with Cofidis.

Race-Honed, Italian Thoroughbred Frame-Maker

But that’s all ancient history. Sarto Antonio Cycles has now been making custom lightweight carbon frames since the early 90s, under the watchful eye of Antonio’s son, Enrico Sarto.

The name “Sarto” literally means “tailor” and such is the custom-frame-building prowess of the brand that its hand-mades are now ridden by top pro-tour riders, whose names “cannot be disclosed to protect the sponsoring companies whose paint jobs adorn Sarto’s frames.”

But that’s all official corporate history as far as we are concerned. The king-maker of yesteryear has long since passed the torch to the elite frame-maker of today. Outside the orthodox cycling press, Sarto Antonio’s street-cred has a life all of its own. Do a Google search for “Sarto Cycles”, and the search engine returns a slew of red-misted reviews that reflect the brand’s growing cult cachet, including one link for purportedly the most expensive road bike ever built, which has an ultra-light carbon frame trimmed with real gold-plating and genuine black crocodile skin leather.

To cut a long story short , my brief spell of google-fu revealed that Sarto frames have achieved a sort of rarefied status, as the go-to brand for passionate cyclists who want to show their commitment to riding, by owning the ultimate custom road machine, made by the ultimate “OEM” frame-builder – although Enrico will have lots of words with you if you try to call Sarto that.

Thankfully though, you too can now order an eye-wateringly exclusive Sarto in Singapore, the same way you would order one in a high-street bike shop in Milan, Italy.

Announcing Velofit as the official dealer in Singapore

Honestly, for a brand with such a storied past and so many customisable frame options, it makes my heart swell to know that we have managed to bridge the huge distance between Singapore and Italy’s Sarto in the form of a local dealer.

And to celebrate that, Enrico Sarto, son of the famed bike builder Antonio, was in town recently to talk about Sarto’s range of custom frames, now available on our shores via Velofit, Sarto’s designated official dealer.

Watch the videos below, or, if you are pressed for time, here’s our executive summary of what he had to say: